The Fluent Show

Latest Episodes:

What To Do When You're Overwhelmed In Language Lessons Jun 25, 2018

Show notes

In this week’s episode, I have a fascinating Q&A question, which didn't at all bring the answer that my questioner might have been expecting.

My question asker Andy is learning Russian, and finding the amount of word changes overwhelming.

We started with grammar, but then discovered a meaningful SECOND issue, which you have probably dealt with in the past, too.

Why your success depends on knowing how to analyse the problem
How a relationship with a language teacher may hold you back
How to create a strategy to overcome discouragement
Who will be able to help when you're getting stuck
PLUS: How to support students as a tutor

Sponsored By:

Clozemaster: Visit our sponsor Clozemaster, the free addictive language app in over 50 languages

Links:

Living And Speaking French Just Like In France Jun 18, 2018

Show notes

Click or tap here to read the full show notes in my blog article on www.fluentlanguage.co.uk

Bonjour les auditeurs, and welcome to a special édition française of the Fluent Show, with my native French speaking guest Géraldine Lepere.

Check out Géraldine's AWESOME site Comme Une Française

This show is a bilingual podcast, meaning you'll hear me do my best in French.

Bilingual? How does that work?

It's simple. Throughout this episode of the podcast, Géraldine and I will switch between speaking English and speaking French.

You will hear me make mistakes, forget words, and be right there in the truth of making mistakes. I am a French speaker and have studied French for 20+ years, but my French is NOT perfect.

If you are not an experienced French learner, there will be some parts of the podcast that you don’t understand. But like all language learners, you’re not alone in that feeling. I always remember what the lovely Ron Gullekson said about listening to a different language:

“I want to get used to feeling uncomfortable.”

So fear not, trust that we will come back to English again and again, and the interview will still be interesting for you.

Get A List Of Vocabulary I Learnt In This Episode + My Main Takeaways

Special Guest: Géraldine Lepere.

Sponsored By:

Smartcards+: Smartcards+ is a smart and user-friendly flashcards app. Download flashcard decks, make your own, and then just review and go while the app tracks your language progress. Check it out for free on any iPhone or iPad.

Links:

Youssoupha - Entourage (Clip Officiel) - YouTube — Rap en français
Come - Jain musique et vidéo — Jain - chansons en anglais
LaFourchette - Réservez dans les meilleurs restaurants de France
TripAdvisor : lisez des avis, comparez les prix et réservez
OrelSan - More Rap in French
Stromae music, videos, stats, and photos | Last.fm
English to French, Italian, German & Spanish Dictionary - WordReference.com
France.tv - Pluzz et Replay TV des chaînes France Télévisions
Bienvenue sur le site officiel de Juliette !
Comme Une Française School — Géraldine's AWESOME culture and language programme - perfect for intermediates who want to start speaking French for real

Q&A: Should You Learn the Dialect of a Language? Jun 11, 2018

Show notes

How do you feel about learning two dialects of a language at the same time?

The Dictionary of Linguistics defines dialect as a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area.

So in other words, you’re ALWAYS learning a language and often you might be learning one that is a dialect of another. Romanian and Italian are dialects of Latin, if we zoom out far enough.

So for you as the language learner, the dialect question is relevant. But do not sweat it because there’s no single answer. Each language you will learn might handle its dialect question slightly differently. So there’s only one way to do this, and that’s to ASK.

It’s the classic “what’s a dialect, what’s a language” debate, and whether it really matters.

In this episode I discuss the topic in practical terms without going too far into the deep question. Every language has non-standard variants, so let’s just think about what matters most when learning a language.

Thank you to my co-host Lindsay Williams for this episode introduction.

Sponsored By:

Smartcards+: Smartcards+ is a smart and user-friendly flashcards app. Download flashcard decks, make your own, and then just review and go while the app tracks your language progress. Check it out for free on any iPhone or iPad.

Links:

enter image description here — **What Is Fluency, What Is Mastery...And How Do You Get There?** Jun 04, 2018
Show notes

In this podcast and blog article, we're discussing words that mean a lot to many people, answering questions such as:

What is "fluency" and how do you know you're fluent?
How can I achieve "mastery" in a language?
What can you gain from being a "polyglot" or "digital nomad"?

Click or tap here to read the full show notes in my blog article on www.fluentlanguage.co.uk

Sponsored By:

Smartcards+: Smartcards+ is a smart and user-friendly flashcards app. Download flashcard decks, make your own, and then just review and go while the app tracks your language progress. Check it out for free on any iPhone or iPad.

Links:

#clearthelist April 2018: Now I Know My Language Level by Fluent Language — A Clear The List Article From Kerstin

Language Learning Goals: Clear The List - May 2018 - Lindsay Does Languages — A Clear The List Article From Lindsay

Podcast Episode 35: Polyglot Club Certificates Available Now by Fluent Language

The Digital Bromad: How Toxic Masculinity Thrives Abroad

Amazon: The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich — Famous book written by a dude

Getting Through: The Pleasures and Perils of Cross-Cultural Communication (MIT Press)

Language Mastery | How to Learn Japanese the Fun Way with John Fotheringham

Q&A: How To Prepare For Language Lessons on Skype May 28, 2018

Show notes

You can find language tutors on sites like italki, in online communities, or by searching for your target language on social networks. Instagram is particularly great here.

Before Your First Lesson With A New Skype Tutor

Be clear about what you want to get out of your set of lessons, and communicate this to your teacher. Here's a list of suggested questions to ask them.

Decide if you want to follow a curriculum
Decide how you want corrections to work
Listen to simple texts in the language if you can, even podcasts

Before Every Lesson With Your Tutor

Do your homework

Homework isn't necessarily an explicit set of exercises, but sometimes it's just about reading a text or reviewing what the last lesson covered.

This is the way for you to get more for your money — interaction and contact are at a premium if you’re self-teaching, so try to stay focused. If your teacher gives you a flashcard deck, interact with it. Always review new vocab from previous lessons.

Research the vocabulary of what you want to talk about
- You can use a mind map to collect vocab around your target topic

Be somewhere quiet with fast internet
Ask your tutor for help with what you’re stuck on

Ground Rules

No matter where you are at in your journey with language tutors, these five tips are going to make your life better and easier when you're working with a tutor.

Respect your language tutor (see language exchange podcast)
Be open and tell them about yourself
- Your situation
- Your experience
Ask advice, they’re an expert!
Budget for a few months, budget for your next language goal (time budget, financial budget)
Decide how you want corrections to work

Final thought: TRUST THE PROCESS

Don’t doubt yourself too much
You won’t get faster just through a few tutoring sessions, but you will move forward through it
Don’t expect the world - you cannot buy knowledge!

Win $25 With Our Sponsor Smartcards+

This month, Smartcards+ is giving you the chance to win a $25 iTunes gift certificate when you download and try out the app. Here’s how it works:

Head over to www.smartcardsplus.com/fluent and download the app onto your iPhone or iPad
Create your account and start your first deck
Share what you are learning! Post a screenshot with the hashtag #smartcardsplus on Instagram or Twitter
Make sure you follow @appdesignplus so you can be notified by direct message if you’re a winner

Hot Tip: If you don’t know where to start, select “Import” and “Online Resources”, and you’ll be able to search the deck library at Anki and Quizlet

Thank you to Olly Richards for this episode introduction.

Sponsored By:

Smartcards+: Smartcards+ is a smart and user-friendly flashcards app. Download flashcard decks, make your own, and then just review and go while the app tracks your language progress. Check it out for free on any iPhone or iPad.

Links:

Top Tools for Summer 2018 May 21, 2018

Show notes

It's time for our seasonal countdown of what's hot in language learning. Lindsay and I have been collecting our top tools, and we select our list of top 3 recommendations on the Fluent Show.

Lingodeer
Text Inspector
Talkalang
/r/languagelearning
FutureLearn
Babadum

A lovely image-based vocab game to play in your browser, made by a non-profit design studio from Poland. The range of langauges is massive!

Plus: A news segment on what the French have been up to.. 🇫🇷🍔🌭

Sponsored By:

Smartcards+: Smartcards+ is a smart and user-friendly flashcards app. Download flashcard decks, make your own, and then just review and go while the app tracks your language progress. Check it out for free on any iPhone or iPad.

Links:

Q&A: Should I Give Flashcards Another Chance? May 14, 2018

Show notes

Today’s show is based on a question I have been asking myself. And that is…

“Should I Give Flashcards Another Chance?”

The way I learn vocabulary is always changing, and my methods and strategies evolve all the time. For many years, learning with vocabulary notebooks was my prime way of reviewing new words. But there are also other techniques, and recently I’ve started using a flashcard app, Smartcards+.

I review vocab with

Labels
Lists (hand written and regularly reviewed and condensed)
Flashcards

I have never used

Hand-written flashcards
Anki

Source Of Vocab

These places above are not always where I find Vocab, and it’s a huge success factor to bear in mind that in a way a list or app is your worst source unless the item is super rich.

One of the biggest reasons I haven’t used flashcard apps was the quality or relevance of the pre-written courses. Compare learning in class, in real life, in an engaged environment, to just seeing a plain word in a list. It’s arbitrary, and not everyone likes that.

Memrise

Memrise does really well when you take one of their official courses. Partly because it does exactly that rich thing well, with videos from Membus. But there’s also a bit of low quality fluff on this platform and I’m sad not to see so many mnemonics anymore.

Mnemonics

In this episode, I use the word "anghysbell" to illustrate how mnemonics work.

Recall

I don’t care if I can’t recall a word. I’ll see it very often if it’s relevant and important. Again, apps can be an issue here if you get bothered by seeing the same irrelevant term again and again. I do. In my Vocab lists, I am in charge.

And being in charge of your own learning is everything.

Activate

Learning and recalling new Vocab in a list or flashcard is nice. It’s pointless if you cannot use that word though.

Conclusion: Vocab is not Language

Really, we're worrying about a small part of the whole here. Sometimes I feel frustrated because the new wave of apps tells you “learn a language” when really you’re "learning words and phrases".

You need to learn a language over time and keep throwing new things in.

Sponsored By:

Smartcards+: Smartcards+ is a smart and user-friendly flashcards app. Download flashcard decks, make your own, and then just review and go while the app tracks your language progress. Check it out for free on any iPhone or iPad.

Links:

The Vocab Cookbook on Amazon
The Vocab Cookbook in my online shop
Clairefontaine 141820C 11 x 17 cm Koverbook Lined and Margin Wire Bound Vocabulary Book: Amazon.co.uk: Office Products — A vocabulary notebook
Memrise
Magnetic Memory Method — If you're into the "remember everything" memory palace thing
How To Create The Best Vocabulary Learning Technique In Any Language by Fluent Language

Learning and Speaking 20+ Languages in New York City May 07, 2018

Show notes

This week, I talk to language and grammar fanatic Ellen Jovin. Ellen has spent the last (nearly) decade learning and forgetting over 20 languages, and reviewing hundreds of language learning materials.

In this interview, you will learn about

How to select the best materials for teaching yourself a language
How to grow as a person through using Facebook
Why it doesn't matter if a language is hard
Why Ellen stopped going to language classes
How even the best book can be one you don't enjoy, and what to do when that happens
How to use the city, even the building you live in, to learn more languages
Why Ellen has reviewed hundreds of materials, but won't tell me (or you!) which one is the best one
Why being true to yourself is a better way to learn languages

Quotes from Ellen Jovin

Ellen is a joy to talk to and to listen to. She has so much love for language and a great way with words, so this interview was packed full of great quotes.

"In 2009 I suddenly realised (..) that I can really learn a lot without ever going to class."

"I feel a kinship with Slavic languages. There's so much grammar and I love grammar so much that I'm sitting there with my eyes open in disbelief that they could possibly have this many forms."

"I feel as though it might really transform my life outlook if I took Latin."

"I feel like what I'm doing is true. It's honest. I'm not studying languages because I think I should study them. I'm studying them because it makes me feel happy."

"I don't really care about [forgetting languages I've studied]. I did it because I enjoyed the process. It opens up a world into another culture, it enables you to make new friends who are native speakers of other languages....and how is that not worthwhile?"

"In a teach yourself environment you really have to tap into the interesting capacity for play, for humour."

Special Guest: Ellen Jovin.

Sponsored By:

Smartcards+: Smartcards+ is a smart and user-friendly flashcards app. Download flashcard decks, make your own, and then just review and go while the app tracks your language progress. Check it out for free on any iPhone or iPad.

Links:

Columbia University in the City of New York Official Bookstore | Textbooks, Rentals, Sweatshirts, Tees, Hats — Columbia University's Bookstore in New York
Books, Fiction, Childrens & lots more | Foyles Bookstore — Foyles Bookshop - one of the best language book shops in the UK
Ellen Jovin - Language Utopia! One Polyglot’s Product Fantasies - YouTube — Ellen speaking at the Polyglot Conference in 2016
Pimsleur® Official Store | Pimsleur Method
McGraw Hill Language and Reference Books — Practice Makes Perfect
Polyglots (The Community) on Facebook
Apprendre une langue étrangère avec la méthode ASSIMIL
Differences Between Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation
Children interrupt BBC News interview - BBC News - YouTube
No More Hoarding! How to Organize All Your Language Learning Resources by Fluent Language

Q&A: How to Re-Learn a Language You’ve Forgotten Apr 30, 2018

Show notes

Re-learning sounds like a daunting task, but today's episode will guide you through what you need to think about.

In this episode, you'll

learn about the difference between conscious and unconscious language acquisition.
discover how to learn vocabulary so you always remember it
and the right learning plan for getting that language skills back.

Check out The Vocab Cookbook for more about the vocab method Acquire, Memorize, Review.

Tips For Starting A Re-Learn Plan

If you used to speak the language as a child

Increase your exposure to as much as you possibly can get (films, music, youtube, consider if you can read/write?) - especially if you first learnt as a kid, because your unconscious skill is likely high
Consider whether you need all 4 core skills. If you want to recover language levels as they were when you were 4 years old, chances are you’re thinking of a time when you were pre-writing. So focus on that speaking and listening, and all will be well. If you get there and then discover that you’re missing something, move on from there and consider the new knowledge
Reconnect with the language community, or a language community (community is so important especially if you used to learn, and now you’re feeling like you are on the outside)
Get yourself a grammar resource, but only use it when you need it

If you previously learnt as an adult

Consider what you liked and what worked for you last time, and recreate the conditions for success
Go with the exposure as well, though you may not ‘reactivate’ as much
Do follow a textbook, but skim as much as you can
Speak as soon as you can, with a patient partner on a large range of

Sponsored By:

Smartcards+: Smartcards+ is a smart and user-friendly flashcards app. Download flashcard decks, make your own, and then just review and go while the app tracks your language progress. Check it out for free on any iPhone or iPad.

Links:

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